Scriptwriting

By Adaa
• Screenwriting or scriptwriting is the art and
craft of writing scripts for mass media such as
feature films, television productions or video
games. It is often a freelance profession.
• Screenwriters are responsible for researching
the story, developing the narrative, writing the
script, screenplay, dialogues and delivering it, in
the required format, to development executives.
Screenwriters therefore have great influence
over the creative direction and emotional impact
of the screenplay and, arguably, of the finished
film.
• Screenwriters either pitch original ideas to
producers, in the hope that they will be
optioned or sold; or are commissioned by a
producer to create a screenplay from a
concept, true story, existing screen work or
literary work, such as a novel, poem, play,
comic book, or short story
 Types

• Spec script writing

Spec scripts are feature film or television show
scripts written on speculation of sale, without
the commission of a film studio, production
company or TV network. The content is usually
invented solely by the screenwriter, though spec
screenplays can also be based on established
works or real people and events
• Spec writing is also unique in that the writer
must pitch the idea to producers. In order to
sell the script, it must have an excellent title,
good writing, and a great logline. A logline is
one sentence that lays out what the movie is
about. A well written logline will convey the
tone of the film, introduce the main character,
and touch on the primary conflict
• Commissioned screenplay
A commissioned screenplay is written by a hired
writer. The concept is usually developed long
before the screenwriter is brought on, and often
has multiple writers work on it before the script
is given a green light. The plot development is
usually based on highly successful novels, plays,
TV shows and even video games, and the rights
to which have been legally acquired
• Feature assignment writing
Scripts written on assignment are screenplays created
under contract with a studio, production company, or
producer. These are the most common assignments
sought after in screenwriting.
A screenwriter can get an assignment either exclusively or
from "open" assignments. A screenwriter can also be
approached and offered an assignment. Assignment
scripts are generally adaptations of an existing idea or
property owned by the hiring company, but can also be
original works based on a concept created by the writer or
producer
Rewriting and script doctoring
• Most produced films are rewritten to some
extent during the development process.
Frequently, they are not rewritten by the
original writer of the script. Many established
screenwriters, as well as new writers whose
work shows promise but lacks marketability,
make their living rewriting scripts.
• When a script's central premise or characters
are good but the script is otherwise
unusable, a different writer or team of
writers is contracted to do an entirely new
draft, often referred to as a "page one
rewrite". When only small problems remain,
such as bad dialogue or poor humor, a writer
is hired to do a "polish" or "punch-up".
• Depending on the size of the new writer's
contributions, screen credit may or may not
be given. For instance, in the American film
industry, credit to rewriters is given only if
50% or more of the script is substantially
changed. These standards can make it difficult
to establish the identity and number of
screenwriters who contributed to a film's
creation.
• When established writers are called in to
rewrite portions of a script late in the
development process, they are commonly
referred to as script doctors. Prominent script
doctors include Christopher Keane, Steve
Zaillian, William Goldman, Robert Towne,
Mort Nathan, Quentin Tarantino and Peter
Russell. Many up-and-coming screenwriters
work as ghost writers
Television writing
• A freelance television writer typically uses spec scripts
or previous credits and reputation to obtain a contract
to write one or more episodes for an existing
television show. After an episode is submitted,
rewriting or polishing may be required.
• A staff writer for a TV show generally works in-house,
writing and rewriting episodes. Staff writers—often
given other titles, such as story editor or producer—
work both as a group and individually on episode
scripts to maintain the show's tone, style, characters,
and plots.
• Television show creators write the television
pilot and bible of new television series. They
are responsible for creating and managing all
aspects of a show's characters, style, and
plots.
• Frequently, a creator remains responsible for
the show's day-to-day creative decisions
throughout the series run as showrunner,
head writer or story editor
Writing for daily series
• The process of writing for soap operas and telenovelas is
different from that used by prime time shows, due in part
to the need to produce new episodes five days a week for
several months. In one example cited by Jane Espenson,
screenwriting is a "sort of three-tiered system":
• a few top writers craft the overall story arcs. Mid-level
writers work with them to turn those arcs into things that
look a lot like traditional episode outlines, and an array of
writers below that (who do not even have to be local to
Los Angeles), take those outlines and quickly generate
the dialogue while adhering slavishly to the outlines
 Espenson notes that a recent trend has been to
eliminate the role of the mid-level writer, relying on
the senior writers to do rough outlines and giving the
other writers a bit more freedom.
Regardless, when the finished scripts are sent to the
top writers, the latter do a final round of rewrites.
Espenson also notes that a show that airs daily, with
characters who have decades of history behind their
voices, necessitates a writing staff without the
distinctive voice that can sometimes be present in
prime-time series
Writing for game shows
• Game shows feature live contestants, but still use a
team of writers as part of a specific format.
• This may involve the slate of questions and even
specific phrasing or dialogue on the part of the
host. Writers may not script the dialogue used by
the contestants, but they work with the producers
to create the actions, scenarios, and sequence of
events that support the game show's concept
Video game writing
• With the continued development and
increased complexity of video games, many
opportunities are available to employ
screenwriters in the field of video game
design.
• Video game writers work closely with the
other game designers to create characters,
scenarios, and dialogue.
 Screenplay Format

Most modern screenplays, at least in Hollywood and related

screen cultures, are written in a style known as the Master
Scene Format or Master Scene Script. The format is
characterized by six elements, presented in the order in which
they are most likely to be used in a script:
• Scene Heading, or Slug
• Action Lines, or Big Print
• Character Name
• Parentheticals
• Dialogue
• Transitions
• Scripts written in Master Scene Format are
divided into scenes: "a unit of story that takes
place at a specific location and time".
• Scene headings (or slugs) indicate the location
the following scene is to take place in, whether it
is interior or exterior, and the time-of-day it
appears to be. Conventionally, they are
capitalized, and may be underlined or bolded. In
production drafts, scene headings are numbered
• Next are action lines, which describe stage
direction and are generally written in the present
tense with a focus only on what can be seen or
heard by the audience.
• Character names are in all caps, centered in the
middle of the page, and indicate that a character
is speaking the following dialogue. Characters
who are speaking off-screen or in voice-over are
indicated by the suffix (O.S.) and (V.O) respectively
• Parentheticals provide stage direction for the
dialogue that follows. Most often this is to indicate
how dialogue should be performed (for example,
angry) but can also include small stage directions
(for example, picking up vase). Overuse of
parentheticals is discouraged.
• Dialogue blocks are offset from the page's margin
by 3.7" and are left-justified. Dialogue spoken by
two characters at the same time is written side by
side and is conventionally known as dual-dialogue.
• The final element is the scene transition and is used to
indicate how the current scene should transition into
the next. It is generally assumed that the transition will
be a cut, and using "CUT TO:" will be redundant. Thus
the element should be used sparingly to indicate a
different kind of transition such as "DISSOLVE TO:".
• Screenwriting applications such as Final Draft
(software), Celtx, Fade In (software), Slugline, Scrivener
(software), and Highland, allow writers to easily format
their script to adhere to the requirements of the
master screen format